NVIDIA's Open GPU Linux Kernel Driver Will Soon Be The Default For Turing & Newer GPUs

[mdedetrich]

Nvidia drivers are so annoying to set up on Linux with recent kernels, that all Linux users will certainly end up, one day or another, switching to Intel or AMD GPUs...

This literally hasn't been a problem for any half decent Linux distro for over a decade, and this is someone who has distro hopped over 20+ distros while using NVidia cards for 20+ years.

[mdedetrich]

Of course they are, look at the time table, the group steals the code and demands that NVIDIA open source their driver and a short time later NVIDIA releases the source to their kernel code.

What do you need, a neon sign from NVIDIA admitting as much?

NVIDIA has never released anything open source, why do you think they had the change of heart?

They aren't related at all, and this was demonstrably shown to be the case when it happened.

Let me remind you that NVidia didn't open source anything substantial rather they moved previously closed source code (such as power management for the GPU) that sat inside their driver into the GSP chip that sits on newer NVidia cards.

[NeoMorpheus]

I love FOSS!.

But I love Ngreedia even more.

Yours truly, fake FOSS community members.

[binarybanana]

To me this sounds like they're going to drop support for pre-turing cards without support for this new kernel driver soon.

[Phil995511]

I didn't find it bothersome at all when I upgraded from a GTX 750 to an RTX 3060 so I could do more CUDA stuff and then bought a new computer to put it in a few months later because it got too bothersome to rebuild certain apps to not need AVX.

...I did have to downgrade my mother's laptop off the Kubuntu LTS HWE kernel to the non-HWE one though, because the AMD drivers were failing with UBSAN errors in their 6.5 kernels.

If you do regular Nvidia driver updates manually +/- 1 time per month using their .run & DKMS and you also install the latest Linux kernels available, I swear after a while you have you just want to change GPU brands because it's so boring to do. Other manufacturers offer you simple solutions, 100% automated via the integration of GPU drivers at the kernel level !!

[binarybanana]

If you do regular Nvidia driver updates manually +/- 1 time per month using their .run & DKMS and you also install the latest Linux kernels available, I swear after a while you have you just want to change GPU brands because it's so boring to do. Other manufacturers offer you simple solutions, 100% automated via the integration of GPU drivers at the kernel level !!

On Gentoo it's just another package that installs without any interaction. Other distros are similar. Non-bleeding edge distro users get what they deserve. But even the stock installer can run without any prompts if you supply all the options as options IIRC. Getting it to work on new kernels can be a problem if you are on the bleeding edge but usually even in the -rc phase there are patches to fix the module.

Also nouveau exists and it works OK for pure desktop usage. Wouldn't mind a cheap nvidia card to get more outputs in a multi monitor setup.

[Phil995511]

On Gentoo it's just another package that installs without any interaction. Other distros are similar. Non-bleeding edge distro users get what they deserve. But even the stock installer can run without any prompts if you supply all the options as options IIRC. Getting it to work on new kernels can be a problem if you are on the bleeding edge but usually even in the -rc phase there are patches to fix the module.

Also nouveau exists and it works OK for pure desktop usage. Wouldn't mind a cheap nvidia card to get more outputs in a multi monitor setup.

With all distributions the included Nvidia driver is just a package to install... To my knowledge, only Ubuntu and Manjaro offer Nvidia drivers that are really easy to install. But we're not necessarily a fan of these two distributions...

But if you are running Debian or another distribution of this kind, and you need the latest kernel available, because your motherboard and your CPU are very recent and you also have the latest model of graphics card from Nvidia whose driver n It's not included with your distribution, I swear it's no fun to regularly update your OS by hand.

And then on laptops, with many distributions, it is still not easy to make Intel and Nvidia GPUs coexist.

In short, Nvidia refuses to make life easier for its customers on Linux, which means that I will most certainly not remain a customer with them, like many other users.

Nvidia should integrate their proprietary drivers into the Linux kernel by making them open-source!!!

As for the nouveau driver you are referring to, it is so inefficient that it underuses your Nvidia graphics card. You might as well buy a cheaper AMD GPU with a better optimized integrated driver for similar final performance in 2D and much better in 3D !!!

[Rovano]

With all distributions the included Nvidia driver is just a package to install... To my knowledge, only Ubuntu and Manjaro offer Nvidia drivers that are really easy to install. But we're not necessarily a fan of these two distributions...

But if you are running Debian or another distribution of this kind, and you need the latest kernel available, because your motherboard and your CPU are very recent and you also have the latest model of graphics card from Nvidia whose driver n It's not included with your distribution, I swear it's no fun to regularly update your OS by hand.

And then on laptops, with many distributions, it is still not easy to make Intel and Nvidia GPUs coexist.

In short, Nvidia refuses to make life easier for its customers on Linux, which means that I will most certainly not remain a customer with them, like many other users.

Nvidia should integrate their proprietary drivers into the Linux kernel by making them open-source!!!

As for the nouveau driver you are referring to, it is so inefficient that it underuses your Nvidia graphics card. You might as well buy a cheaper AMD GPU with a better optimized integrated driver for similar final performance in 2D and much better in 3D !!!

Where have you been for the last 15 years?
On Mars?

On the contrary, I can't think of distributions that do NOT allow easy installation of Nvidia.

Even installing via RUN is very simple if I want to try it.

It seems to me that you are stuck somewhere in history. And you also lack a general overview of new options.

Some distributions even have the driver already on the Live media!

So which universe do you live in?

Or you're just a troll.

[Phil995511]

Where have you been for the last 15 years?
On Mars?

On the contrary, I can't think of distributions that do NOT allow easy installation of Nvidia.

Even installing via RUN is very simple if I want to try it.

It seems to me that you are stuck somewhere in history. And you also lack a general overview of new options.

Some distributions even have the driver already on the Live media!

So which universe do you live in?

Or you're just a troll.

I return the question to you, are you an amateur or you're just a troll.

[sophisticles]

You don’t understand the amount of legal work required for that code to be released and that’s fine. If you are a company of that size you cannot simply take proprietary code and release it. It doesn’t work like that. The open source kernel module was in the works for a long time and was primarily a legal endeavor.

And you know this how? You are one NVIDIA's corporate lawyers?

And it was just a "coincidence" that NVIDIA had a change of heart?

Talk about denial.